The “Big Beautiful Bill” and the Gulf of America

Guest “Yee-haw!” by David Middleton,

A brief recap

From 2017 through 2020, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held seven area-wide Gulf of America (GOA) lease sales.

From 2021 through 2024, BOEM only held three GOA lease sales. Lease Sale 257, held in November 2021, was nullified by a corrupt Obama judge. Biden, or whoever was operating the Autopen, cancelled sales 259 and 261, scheduled for 2022 and 2023 respectively. Then Biden’s Interior Department unlawfully refused to issue a new leasing plan. If not for one good provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, there would have been no GOA lease sales.

The Inflation Reduction Act (the Act), which passed the U.S. Senate on Aug. 7, 2022, requires that previously announced offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska be held during the next two years.

The Act requires the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) to award leases to the highest bidders in Lease Sale 257, which was held in November 2021. In January 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia vacated Lease Sale 257 after finding that Interior’s environmental review failed to adequately consider certain greenhouse gas emissions related to holding the offshore oil and gas lease sale. See Friends of the Earth v. Haaland, 2022 WL 254526 (D.D.C. Jan. 27, 2022).

The Act directs Interior to rely on its Record of Decision for Outer Continental Oil and Gas Leasing Program Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement issued on Jan. 17, 2017 (82 Fed. Reg. 6643). The Act also requires Interior to move forward with Lease Sale 258 in Alaska Region’s Cook Inlet by Dec. 31, 2022, and two additional Gulf of Mexico Lease sales, Lease Sales 259 and 261, by March 2023 and September 2023, respectively. The Act provides that the restored and new lease sales be held despite the fact that the Five-Year Leasing Plan mandated by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act expired in June 2022.

Holland and Knight

Despite the worst efforts of Biden’s Autopen, Gulf of America operators managed to maintain a production level of about 1.8 million barrels per day, second only to the Permian Basin, among US oil producing regions.

 In-brief analysisJune 6, 2025

Gulf of America oil and natural gas production expected to remain stable through 2026

federal offshore gulf of america production

Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), May 2025


We forecast crude oil production in the Federal Offshore Gulf of America (GOA) will average 1.80 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2025 and 1.81 million b/d in 2026, compared with 1.77 million b/d in 2024, in our most recent Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). We expect GOA natural gas production to average 1.72 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2025 and 1.64 Bcf/d in 2026, compared with 1.79 Bcf/d in 2024. At these volumes, the GOA is forecast to contribute about 13% of U.S. crude oil production and 1% of U.S. marketed natural gas production in 2025 and 2026.

We expect operators to start crude oil and natural gas production at 13 fields in the GOA during 2025 and 2026, without which GOA production would decline. Eight fields will be developed using subsea tiebacks or underwater extensions to existing Floating Production Units (FPUs) at the surface. Five fields will produce from four new FPUs, with one of the new FPUs (Salamanca FPU) targeting production from two fields.

We expect the additional crude oil production from all new fields will contribute 85,000 b/d in 2025 and 308,000 b/d in 2026. We expect associated natural gas production from the new fields will average 0.09 Bcf/d in 2025 and 0.27 Bcf/d in 2026.

Three fields began producing earlier this year:

  • Whale
    Whale, one of the largest fields expected to come online in 2025 and 2026, started producing in January 2025 from a new FPU of the same name. The Whale FPU, located in more than 8,600 feet of water, is expected to produce around 85,000 b/d of crude oil at its peak.
  • Ballymore
    The Ballymore field started production in April 2025 as a subsea tieback to the existing Blind Faith facility, and it is expected to produce 75,000 b/d from the Ballymore wells in the emerging Upper Jurassic/Norphlet play.
  • Dover
    The Dover field also started production in April as a subsea tieback to the existing Appomattox facility with expected peak production of around 15,000 b/d.

Production coming online in the second half of 2025:

  • Shenandoah
    The Shenandoah field, which will produce from an FPU of the same name, is scheduled to start production in June 2025 with an initial capacity of 120,000 b/d, which will be expanded to 140,000 b/d in early 2026. The Shenandoah Phase 1 development will use new technologies to produce from a deepwater high-pressure field.
  • Leon and Castile
    Another new FPU we expect to come online in the second half of 2025, Salamanca, will process oil and natural gas from the Leon and Castile discoveries. The Salamanca project involved refurbishing a previously decommissioned production facility and has a capacity of 60,000 b/d of oil and 40 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.
  • We expect other subsea tiebacks to existing facilities to enter production in late 2025: Katmai WestSunspearArgos Southwest Extension, and Zephyrus Phase 1.

Production coming online in 2026:

Three new subsea tiebacks are expected to begin production in 2026: Silvertip Phase 3Longclaw, and Monument, a subsea tieback to the Shenandoah FPU.

Hurricanes in the Gulf of America could disrupt the production and development timeline of these new fields. Colorado State University anticipates that the 2025 Atlantic Basin hurricane season will have above-normal activity with 17 named storms.

Principal contributor: Eulalia Munoz-Cortijo

US EIA

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Gulf of America

While the One Big Beauiful Bill Act is far from perfect, it codified a legal requirement for BOEM to hold two area-wide Gulf of America lease sales every year through 2041, streamlines commingling permits and reduces the royalty rate back down to 12.5% (1/8th).

Offshore Oil & Gas Provisions
The final bill includes strong offshore energy measures, many long supported by NOIA:

  • Mandates Two Gulf of America Lease Sales Annually for the next 15 years, each offering at least 80 million acres.
  • Requires Six Offshore Lease Sales in Cook Inlet, Alaska over the next decade.
  • Streamlines Offshore Operations: Requires BSEE to approve production commingling requests unless safety or production is negatively impacted.
  • Restores Previous Royalty Rate: Reinstates the minimum 12.5% royalty rate for new offshore leases.
  • Boosts Revenue Sharing: Increases the GOMESA revenue cap to $650 million annually, up from $500 million.

After the Senate vote, NOIA President Erik Milito praised the offshore leasing provisions, calling them a necessary course correction after “years of policy whiplash”:

Mandated Gulf of America lease sales are absolutely essential. They give companies, whether family-run service shops or global manufacturers, the predictability needed to invest, hire, and build. When lease schedules vanish, so do jobs, capital, and energy security, with consequences felt far beyond the Gulf Coast.

National Offshore Industries Association (NOIA)

The mandated lease sale requirement is critical. In May 2020, NOIA published a report showing the potential economic impacts from a cessation of GOA lease sales.

These impacts would lead to a sharp drop in oil & gas production. I added the actual production data for 2017-2024 to the graph. Actual production has been 100-200 mbbl/d less than the NOIA baseline since 2020 due to the effects of the Shamdemic and 2020 coup d’état.

The mandate of “two Gulf of America Lease Sales Annually for the next 15 years, each offering at least 80 million acres” pretty well guarantees an active leasing program through 2041 and will give GOA operators a decent shot at exceeding 2 million bbl/d. Unless, of course, some Obama or Biden judge declares that only Federal judges can pass laws.

Federal Judge Overturns Law Of Gravity

U.S.· May 30, 2025 · BabylonBee.com

Image for article: Federal Judge Overturns Law Of Gravity

U.S. — The country was thrown into chaos this morning as a federal judge from the D.C. District Court overturned the law of gravity nationwide.

“The law of gravity is a bigoted law that quite literally keeps people down. This is typical of the fascist authoritarianism that has become President Trump’s brand,” said Judge Porben Crumbly of his latest ruling. “It is a blatant violation of the Constitution and my sensitive leftist sensibilities. It is therefore my divine will as an all-powerful federal judge that gravity no longer exists.”

Within minutes of Judge Crumbly making his decision, everything in the country began to float into the sky in compliance with the ruling. Sources said the sky was now filled with thousands of people, automobiles, chickens, rocks, televisions, and other objects that were typically known for staying on the ground. “How does a federal judge have this kind of authority?” said one woman, who was attempting to walk her chihuahua at 12,000 feet. “It seems like too much authority, but maybe that’s just me.”

[…]

Babylon Bee

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July 11, 2025 11:12 am

Gulf of America?
Sigh…

hdhoese
Reply to  David Middleton
July 11, 2025 3:49 pm

Recently went to a government website on the Gulf of America which had a reference https link to Gulf of Mexico. Regardless of the motives it is going to cause problems and cost a lot. While I’m not up to date would like to know if Mexico is doing more offshore work than we are as they have been steadily increasing their research. Naming board is supposed to have legitimate reasons for name changes but there have been exceptions. 

2hotel9
Reply to  Leo Smith
July 11, 2025 12:08 pm

Gulf of America. Gulf of America. Gulf of America. Gulf of America. Gulf of America. Gulf of America. Gulf of America. Just making sure you got the memo.

Jimmy Broomfield
Reply to  Leo Smith
July 11, 2025 12:11 pm

Why shouldn’t it be called the Gulf of America; it is the Gulf that is part of North and Central America.
It’s not exclusive to Mexico.

Scarecrow Repair
Reply to  Jimmy Broomfield
July 11, 2025 2:38 pm

Maybe Gulf 76, in honor of two oil companies.

It’s just a name. What is the capital of Italy? How do you spell the capital of 日本, Japan, Nippon? The Arabian Gulf is the Persian Gulf is probably the Iranian Gulf.

Just names.

Rich Davis
Reply to  Scarecrow Repair
July 12, 2025 6:47 am

What is ‘just’ (in the sense ‘merely’) about names?

Names symbolize claims of identity, affinity, and ownership. These things have important, even grave real-world impacts.

Is it Königsberg or Kaliningrad? Jerusalem or Al-Quds?
Canaan or Israel?
England or Anglostan?

1saveenergy
Reply to  Leo Smith
July 11, 2025 12:30 pm

Because Trumps done so well in claiming Canada, Greenland, Panama as American, plus his instant stopping of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine & Israels genocide of the Palestinians; he needs to boost his ego,
So a simple change of name of some water on a map will get him into the history books as a great conqueror conjurer & only some fish will be upset.

MiloCrabtree
Reply to  1saveenergy
July 12, 2025 9:54 am

You should go the heliport in Venice, LA, get on your knees, and kiss the backsides of the drilling crews as they come ashore. They make your effete lifestyle possible. Without them, you would be polishing knobs in the dark.

1saveenergy
Reply to  MiloCrabtree
July 12, 2025 3:58 pm

“You should go the heliport in Venice, LA, get on your knees, and kiss the backsides of the drilling crews as they come ashore.”

Well Milo, I must say, you lead a kinky way of life; but presumably you find it stimulating & anything between consenting adults is fine; a man needs a hobby, so I hope it pays you well & you use protection.

 “Without them, you would be polishing knobs in the dark”

Do they bring torches ?? Can see that cumming in handy (:-))

Anyway, I fail to see the connection between your chosen lifestyle & the renaming of an area of seawater.

MiloCrabtree
Reply to  David Middleton
July 12, 2025 6:33 pm

He gives a whole new meaning to circulating bottoms up…

Reply to  1saveenergy
July 14, 2025 8:54 pm

…, he needs to boost his ego, So a simple change of name of some water on a map will get him into the history books as a great conqueror conjurer & only some fish will be upset.

If he had used his executive power to name it the Gulf of Trump, then I would say that you might have a case. However, …

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  Leo Smith
July 11, 2025 12:36 pm

There are things I agree with and things I disagree with and things that are just too funny to worry about.

Gulf of America. In my opinion a better solution would have been to divide that body of water into two pieces. The northern side that borders the USA southern states would be the Gulf of America and the rest the Guld of Mexico. A division line based on the southern most point of Florida drawn to the Texas – Mexican border would be the demarcation.

People can and have speculated all over the map (pun intended) on DJT’s motive behind this, but I guaranty you that only he really knows. The analysis of alternatives is a lengthy list.

Before anyone gets upset they should realize that names on maps (primarily countries) change all the time and different bodies of water are called different names by different countries.

Rud Istvan
July 11, 2025 11:40 am

Good to be back in business.

Biden admin was a disaster of historic proportions in so many ways. Illegal ‘immigration’, energy, inflation, drugs and crime, reform failures (IRS, FAA ATC, Medicaid), DEI military (Trump had to fire heads of Coast Guard and Navy)…

Tom Halla
Reply to  Rud Istvan
July 11, 2025 12:05 pm

Y’all mean President AutoPen? Don’t blame that poor senile yahoo who never was all that competent anyway.

Rud Istvan
Reply to  Tom Halla
July 11, 2025 12:12 pm

I do blame him—and his party.

Easy to prove several different ways that the 2020 election was stolen.

And then his minions covered up his obvious cognitive decline until they couldn’t hide it in the June 2024 debate. Autopen was just one method. So bad that his WH physician took the 5th rather than testify about it on Wednesday.

Tom Halla
Reply to  Rud Istvan
July 11, 2025 1:04 pm

Yeah, some five or so million Democrat “voters” remaining in their graves in 2024? I never believed 81 million real people voted for Biden.

J Boles
Reply to  Rud Istvan
July 11, 2025 1:54 pm

I was surprised that there was not more fallout from that OBVIOUSLY stolen election in 2020. That was a coup d’etat if I ever saw one, performed by many far and wide.

Reply to  J Boles
July 12, 2025 4:13 am

The leftwing media prevents a lot of the fall-out by lying to the American public. They are still lying about it. And will continue to lie about it.

Reply to  Rud Istvan
July 12, 2025 4:09 am

“Easy to prove several different ways that the 2020 election was stolen.”

Yesterday it was reported that China was interfering in the U.S. presidential election of 2020. China was counterfeiting U.S. drivers licenses, and sending them to the United States where Chinese citizens could use the bogus licenses to get mail-order ballots with which they could vote for Joe Biden.

Which just goes to show that mail-order ballots are ripe for corruption and should be done away with, except in special cases.

The U.S. government confiscated about 20,000 of these Chinese-made licenses in one shipment.

And the kicker is that the FBI Director at the time hid these facts from the American Public.

The Democrats are a corrupt political party who pose a great danger to the freedoms we all enjoy. They are not fit to govern us because they do not live in the Real World.

Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 14, 2025 9:05 pm

I’ve often wondered about The Guardian writing biased ‘news’ articles and OpEd pieces about Trump. It strikes me as trying to influence elections. The Guardian should voluntarily withhold offering opinions on candidates and laws that don’t directly impact Brits. “Just the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts.” — Joe Friday

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  Tom Halla
July 11, 2025 12:29 pm

What was it again that Obama said of Biden…?

(Y’all know)

Reply to  Sparta Nova 4
July 12, 2025 4:21 am

Obama should have said the same thing about Kamala, too. Or, about himself, for that matter. Obama wasn’t quite the disaster that Joe Biden turned out to be, but Obama got real close: Letting Putin have his way with Crimea and providing a path to a nuclear weapon for the Mad Mullahs of Iran, and undermining the war effort in Iraq by turning Iraq over to the Iranian terrorists. Among many other screwups.

And of course, Obama was the instigator of the Russia, Russia, Russia investigations of candidate Trump and impeachment of President Trump.

Obama’s FBI Director, James Comey is being investigated for perpetrating these bogus investigations of Trump, along with the CIA Director, James Clapper.

If you think the FBI Director and the CIA Director did all these illegal activities on their own, then you don’t understand how things work.

Obama and Biden should both be indicted for lying to Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court in their efforts to undermine Trump and the Republicans. They used the power of the federal government as a weapon against their political opponents. Now, the tables have turned and all this corruption and treason by the Obama-Biden administration is going to be uncovered for all to see.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 14, 2025 12:06 pm

I’ve read the same reports.

If there was election interference, 2016 was hallmark.

And now the tables are turned, they are all claiming victimhood.

Bruce Cobb
July 11, 2025 12:31 pm

Oh no! There goes the planethood.

Sparta Nova 4
July 11, 2025 12:40 pm

The Babylon Bee anecdote reminds me of an old tale.

A king decided the value for PI was too complex and issued a royal decree that PI henceforth was 3.0. Obviously that did not gain traction.

Reply to  Sparta Nova 4
July 14, 2025 9:07 pm

He made mincemeat of the idea of Pi.

Rud Istvan
July 11, 2025 12:45 pm

Expanding ‘back in business in past ~6 months’ from just BOEM and GoA leasing.

  1. Illegal alien southern border crossings down to effectively zero.
  2. Illegal criminal alien deportations way up, along with self deportations aided by pr like the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ visit.
  3. Price of gas and eggs both way down.
  4. NATO contributions just agreed to go way up.
  5. Military recruiting deficits already fully resolved for all service branches.
  6. DOGE—a work in progress. 1300 riffed at State today after lower court stay overturned on appeal. Rescission bills on the way.
  7. OBBB passed (barely). Solves among many other things the looming debt ceiling impasse—Ron Paul voting no doesn’t mean that debt ceilings have ever worked before, just that he is a stubborn idealist.
  8. Major onshoring announcements already, thanks to tariff threats.
  9. Iran nuclear program very significantly disrupted.
  10. Nationwide district court TROs and PIs just banned by SCOTUS 8:1.
  11. Birthright citizenship under 14A ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ finally under formal judicial review thanks to EO, and likely headed to SCOTUS next term. Undoing Dred Scott in 1867 was not meant to sanction ‘birthright tourism’ and illegal alien ‘anchor babies’ in 2025.
  12. EV mandates and green subsidies now gone.
  13. Harvard and Columbia being held to account.
  14. RFK jr working on MAHA with his selected team of 3 Allstars.
  15. Research ‘overhead’ cut to maximum rate privately sponsored.
  16. Tariff ‘wars’ finally introducing true trade reciprocity.
mleskovarsocalrrcom
Reply to  Rud Istvan
July 11, 2025 1:46 pm

Stop complaining! It’s only been 6 months 🙂

Reply to  Rud Istvan
July 12, 2025 4:29 am

“Tariff ‘wars’ finally introducing true trade reciprocity.”

Because of Trump’s tariffs, the U.S. experienced its first trade surplus since 2017, during Trump’s first term.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/11/treasury-posts-unexpected-surplus-in-june-as-tariff-receipts-surge.html

July 11, 2025 1:31 pm

Well…I always laugh when “rightwingers” have a “lefties” moment. The gulf has been called by many names, the most common since 1550 Gulf of Mexico…just live with it and respect its history.

Well 47…picking an insignificant and extremely low hanging fruit does not impress me nor others. Shure drill baby, drill… two thumbs up because it was about time to do the right thing, more please.

Suggestion: Maybe change the term “crude oil” into “not yet destilled great stuff”.. if you have nothing better to do.

a little sarc tag for all the overly patriotic “yankees”

Reply to  varg
July 11, 2025 11:10 pm

To add to my previous sarcasm:

Wait for a danish longboat going ashore and an axe wielding unshaved read head renewing the old claim on Vinland, of shall I better say Nørse-America?

47, if you want to belong to Greenland just pledge allegiance to the danish crown lol…

hey you can still be president and continue to do a better job than the Mummy. Carry on, just stop being childishly silly on occasion.

Now folks, drown me in red if you so please haha

we still have 3 and a half years ahead of US and midterms are approaching, time might be runnning out.

Rich Davis
Reply to  varg
July 12, 2025 7:51 am

But Vinland wouldn’t be our problem, that would be Canada. Oh, wait!

Reply to  Rich Davis
July 12, 2025 9:19 pm

True to begin with, but didn’t 47 welcome the harmless neighbour to join his other 50 states….hmhmm…additional lefties in “your” big beautiful country…think about it 🤣.

Anekdote: that idiocy cost the conservatives their election, so thank you 47

Reply to  varg
July 14, 2025 9:12 pm

Eric the Red almost certainly got chased off by the local residents who didn’t want to share.

Reply to  varg
July 12, 2025 4:37 am

“Well 47…picking an insignificant and extremely low hanging fruit does not impress me nor others.”

We like it when Trump lives in leftwinger’s “brains”. It causes them to do silly things like complain about the renaming of the Gulf.

Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 12, 2025 9:37 pm

Left is what left does.

It does not impress me if the “right” only fixes “LEFTovers” marginally or superficially or embarks on silly quests.

Well as I said: 3,5 years ahead of US and time is running out…good luck and all my best wishes.

Reply to  David Middleton
July 14, 2025 9:14 pm

And they probably think that the rigs in the gulf are fishing platforms to catch red herrings.